Goodbye Soupy
Posted on 10/23/2009 7:31:47 AM PDT by La Lydia
The comedy icon made pie-in-the-face gag a pop-culture phenomenon: It was a simple gag, but one that made Soupy Sales a household name: a pie in the face, or 20,000 pies, to be exact. That slapstick comedic trick, along with a warehouse of goofy faces and wacky characters helped elevate Sales (born Milton Supman) to one of the country's most beloved comedians in the late 1950s. Sales died on Thursday at the age of 83 at a hospital in the Bronx, after several years of declining health...
With his loose-limbed physicality and malleable face, Sales honed his craft on children's television programs in the 1950s, blazing a trail for everything from "The Simpsons" to Pee-Wee Herman by cracking wise for kids while making jokes their parents found funny too. He's best known for his long-running kids show "Lunch With Soupy Sales," where he originated the pie-throwing gag. He moved on to "The Soupy Sales Show," which ran for 13 years in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles, before being picked up in other cities and overseas.
The program was salted with silly puppets named Pookie, White Fang and Black Tooth, but it was Sales who commanded center stage with his pratfalls, campy jokes, loopy characters and puns. The obligatory pie-in-the-face gag became such a phenomenon that...stars such as Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, Tony Curtis and Sammy Davis Jr. lined up to be smeared for its hip cachet.
Sales was born in the tiny town of Franklinton, North Carolina, on January 28, 1926...The family's name was so often mispronounced as "Soupman" that his parents jokingly nicknamed his brothers "Hambone" and "Chickenbone," bestowing on him the name "Soupbone," which was eventually shortened to Soupy....
(Excerpt) Read more at mtv.com ...
In honor of Mr.Sales,I’d like all you Freepers to send me
a dollar!
Goodbye Soupy
How about all Freepers throw a pie in your face instead. ;)
That was a classic.
!!! :)
White Fang is that you?
I only knew him as a game show celebrity. His show and schtick were a little before my but I have seen some old clips of it. The man was hilarious!
Thanks for all the laughs Soupy. RIP.
He’s doing the “soupy-shuffle” over the horizon now. Dance in peace!
Funny guy was Soupy.
One of my absolute favorites. I loved his show when I was a kid. One of the funniest things on TV, especially because, as a kid, a lot of the stuff was spontaneous and “among the adults,” and if you got that, it was extra funny. Thanx for the many laffs, Soupy!
Here’s Soupy being accosted by none other than “The Biggest, Meanest Dog in the United States”, White Fang. Fang was played by film editor Clyde Adler, in a giant white shaggy paw (with black triangular felt claws) jutting out from the corner of the screen.
Black Tooth, in contrast, was”The Biggest, Sweetest Dog in the United States” and was portrayed with a brown glove with claws. Both “dogs” spoke with unintelligible short grunts and growls(White Fang meaner and Black Tooth sweeter), which Soupy repeated back in English for comic effect.
Thank you! I’ve always thought so, too! I can’t believe that someone else sees the resemblance and has posted it here.
Oh golly, how I loved him. I lived in Dearborn, Michigan and watched his noon show in Detroit as much as possible. My girlfriend and I skipped school one day (high school) and went downtown to meet him. What an experience.
His “Words of Wisdom” were priceless. One that I have used often through the years was my favorite:
“Always be true to your teeth and they won’t be false to you.”
Rest in Peace, you funny wonderful man.
Loved The Soup. RIP.
R.I.P. Soupy
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.